Luke Hanson had already shown Amarillo the small version of his night, the one that asks only for touch and nerve. By the time the eighth inning came around Thursday at Riders Field, with a six-run hole long erased and a four-run lead freshly lost, he gave the Sod Poodles the loud one.
Hanson drove a Carlos Rey fly ball into left-center for his first Double-A homer, a three-run shot that put Frisco back in front in a 14-12 win over Amarillo. The ball carried to the wall with Trent Youngblood retreating, and the RoughRiders’ dugout had another reason to spill forward in a game that had already swung too many times to feel settled.
It was the defining blow in Hanson’s 2-for-3, five-RBI night. It also came one half-inning after Amarillo had scored five in the eighth to turn an 11-7 Frisco lead into a 12-11 deficit.
The RoughRiders’ answer was quick and clean enough to make the earlier mess feel temporary. Malcolm Moore was hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the eighth. Keith Jones II walked with one out. Hanson followed by putting Frisco ahead for good.
Bryan Magdaleno, who had been summoned into the eighth with Amarillo still threatening, made it hold. He got the final two outs of that inning, then worked around two walks in the ninth. Fittingly, the last grounder went to Hanson at shortstop, where he ranged through it and threw across to finish the win.
Frisco needed all of it because the game had looked out of reach almost immediately. Amarillo put six runs on Cole Stasio in the second, the last four on Youngblood’s grand slam to left-center. Stasio allowed seven earned runs over three innings, and Angel Ortiz’s solo homer in the third stretched the RoughRiders’ deficit to 7-2.
Then Frisco’s offense started turning the night back toward the home dugout. Arturo Disla hit a two-run homer in the third, a ball that carried out toward center as the comeback stopped feeling theoretical. Gleider Figuereo and Max Wagner followed with singles, Moore’s groundout brought in a run, Marcus Lee Sang singled home another and Sebastian Walcott lined a double down the right-field line to score Lee Sang and tie it.
Disla finished 2-for-3 with his 15th homer and two walks. Moore went 2-for-4 with a homer, a hit by pitch and three RBIs. The RoughRiders finished with 15 hits and no errors.
That depth is part of what Dylan Dreiling had been talking about before the game, when asked about what Frisco needed as it moved toward the playoffs.
“I think just keep doing what we’ve been doing. I think obviously the offense is one of the best in AA, so I think just continuing to have good at-bats as an offense and then locking in every day, I think that’s just going to be what we need to do over the next two weeks to be ready for the playoffs.”
— Dylan Dreiling, Frisco RoughRiders Center Fielder
Dreiling was part of it, too, going 2-for-6 with a double and an RBI. His run-scoring double in the seventh gave Frisco an 11-7 lead after Hanson had already pushed the Riders ahead once with a safety squeeze in the fifth and Moore had added a two-run homer in the sixth.
Hanson’s bunt was the other picture of his night. With Lee Sang at third and Jones at first in the fifth, he deadened the first pitch out in front of the plate well enough for Lee Sang to score. It gave Frisco its first lead, 8-7, after trailing by five just two innings earlier.
Moore’s homer in the sixth added the kind of cushion that seemed large enough until the eighth. Amarillo opened that inning against Josh Trentadue with a hit batter, a strikeout, a walk, Jean Walters’ RBI double and Youngblood’s RBI single. Eric Loomis entered and walked four without recording an out, forcing in the tying run before a wild pitch brought home the go-ahead run before Magdaleno stopped the inning from getting worse.
That only set up Hanson again.
The result was a game that matched the shape Dreiling described before first pitch: a lineup staying in at-bats long enough to make one ugly inning survivable, then doing it again after another. He had also spoken about watching Walcott from close range, and in the third inning Walcott’s double was the swing that completed the first comeback.
“It’s been cool, you know, watching him go about his at-bats, and I’ve played with him before, so it’s not something new to me, but just like watching him kind of grow up, honestly, like from when I played with him in 2024 to now, it’s pretty cool.”
— Dylan Dreiling, Frisco RoughRiders Center Fielder
By the end, Frisco had come back from 6-0 and 7-2, lost an 11-7 lead, and still won. Hanson supplied the bunt that first put the RoughRiders ahead, the homer that put them ahead for good and the throw that ended it.